Gov. DeSantis signs bill providing $500 million to raise Florida teacher starting salaries to 5th in the nation

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Wednesday to provide $500 million to raise teacher starting salaries in the state.

He said the money will raise Florida’s average minimum salary for teachers from 26th in the nation to fifth.

“Hopefully by doing something like this it’s going to entice some more people who might be young thinking about what they want to do to maybe go into teaching,” DeSantis said. “Obviously you’re not going to get rich… like police officers don’t get rich, like other things you do it because you have a servant’s heart, but it makes it easier if you have a good minimum salary.”

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The plan calls for raising the minimum teacher salary to $47,500 a year.

DeSantis said other details to the state’s budget still need to be ironed out, but increased teacher pay will be in there.

“This is the single largest teacher compensation package in the history of Florida,” Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Cocoran said during DeSantis’ news conference Wednesday.

Watch the full news conference below:

Stay tuned to Channel 9 Eyewitness News for live updates.

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